Quranic root
عور
ʿ · w · r
The root develops along two principal lines: alternating or circulating something between parties, and impairment or absence of sight in one eye.
From the eye-related line, the lexicon extends to what is exposed, vulnerable, defective, or requiring concealment; from the alternating line come reciprocal action, lending, and related transferred uses.
- Maqāyīs · row 3346
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 3
- Quran senses
- 4
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
عَوْرَة
ʿawrah
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 4 occurrences
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
A private part or other aspect of a person that is normally concealed because exposing it is shameful or improper.
In 24:31, the plural refers to the private parts or concealed aspects of women; the term may also denote anything whose exposure is considered shameful.
- Lane · entry 5242
- Mufradāt · row 1024
Selected Quran examples
Quran 24:31word 61
“private aspects”
A time of privacy, when private parts or household privacy may be exposed.
In 24:58, the plural denotes the three customary periods of privacy: before dawn prayer, at midday, and after the night prayer.
- Lane · entry 5242
- Mufradāt · row 1024
Selected Quran examples
Quran 24:58word 29
“(are) times of privacy”
A vulnerable, exposed, or undefended condition; specifically, a house or dwelling that is open to danger or attack.
In 33:13, عَوْرَةٌ is used predicatively of houses claimed to be exposed or defenceless, rather than referring to bodily private parts.
- Lane · entry 5240
- Lane · entry 5242
- Mufradāt · row 1024
Selected Quran examples
Quran 33:13word 18
“(are) exposed”
Quran 33:13word 21
“(were) exposed”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 24:31عَوْرَٰتِprivate aspects
- 24:58عَوْرَٰتٍۢ(are) times of privacy
- 33:13عَوْرَةٌۭ(are) exposed
- 33:13بِعَوْرَةٍ ۖ(were) exposed
Broader Classical Arabic meanings
Recorded for this root in the Classical lexicons beyond its Quran usage. These are secondary to the Quran senses above.
Show 32 Classical meanings
عَوِرَ
To become blind in one eye; of an eye, to become blind, sunken, or dried up.
Applied to a person or to the affected eye.
- Lane · entry 5228
- Lane · entry 5239
- Lane · entry 5243
عَارَ الرَّكِيَّةَ
Of a well, to become filled up or spoiled so that its water dries up; to block or fill the well and stop its springs.
A specialized use for wells and water sources.
- Lane · entry 5228
عَارَ / عَوَّرَ
To render someone one-eyed; to put out an eye or make it sink in its socket.
The object may be a person or the eye itself.
- Lane · entry 5228
عَارَهُ
To take a person or thing away; hence, to destroy or cause it to perish.
The verb is reported especially in negative expressions and proverbial usage.
- Lane · entry 5228
تَعَاوَرَ / اِعْتَوَرَ
To take, do, strike, or affect something by turns; to alternate or reciprocally exchange an action.
Used of people sharing an action, of successive blows, and of things acting upon one another in succession.
- Lane · entry 5230
- Lane · entry 5233
- Lane · entry 5256
عَاوَرَ المَكَايِيلَ
To measure or calibrate measures.
A specialized construction referring to vessels or measures.
- Lane · entry 5230
أَعَارَ / عَارِيَّة
To lend a thing or give someone the use of it without an exchange; a loan or borrowed use.
The thing itself is ordinarily returned when it remains available; the reciprocal form can describe lending between parties.
- Lane · entry 5231
- Lane · entry 5233
- Lane · entry 5245
أَعْوَرَ
To appear or become within a person's power or reach.
Used, for example, of game that has come within reach of the hunter.
- Lane · entry 5231
- Lane · entry 5240
أَعْوَرَ
To have an exposed or vulnerable opening or spot, such as a place liable to striking, piercing, or breach.
Applied to a person, a building, or another structure with an exposed weak point.
- Lane · entry 5231
اِسْتَعَارَ
To ask for, seek, or obtain a loan; to borrow a thing for use.
The construction may retain مِنْ before the lender or omit the preposition; it can also take the borrowed object directly.
- Lane · entry 5236
اِسْتَعَارَ سَهْمًا
To raise and transfer an arrow from its quiver.
A specialized figurative or extended use of transferring an object from one place to another.
- Lane · entry 5236
اِسْتِعَارَة
The metaphorical transfer or use of a word or expression.
The term denotes metaphorical usage rather than a literal loan.
- Lane · entry 5236
- Lane · entry 5254
- Lane · entry 5256
عَوَر / عَوَار
A fault, defect, imperfection, blemish, or unsoundness; in an article, garment, structure, or animal, a hole, rent, burn, or rottenness.
The exact manifestation varies with the damaged object; the core meaning is a defect or condition making it unsound or blemished.
- Lane · entry 5239
- Lane · entry 5246
عَوِر / مُعْوِر
An unguarded or exposed place or route where attack, loss, being cut off, or other danger is feared.
Used of a place without a keeper or protection and of a route containing a dangerous opening.
- Lane · entry 5240
عَوْرَة
A woman or women, by extension from something whose appearance is regarded as shameful or requiring concealment.
A figurative or assumed-tropical application, not the basic anatomical sense.
- Lane · entry 5242
عَوْرَة
A place of concealment or a hiding place suitable for covering or protection.
A place-based extension of the notion of what must be concealed.
- Lane · entry 5242
عَوْرَة
A gap, opening, or breach in a frontier, hostile country, or battle line through which slaughter or attack may be feared.
Used of a strategic vulnerability in a boundary or military position.
- Lane · entry 5242
عَوْرَة
A cleft or fissure in a mountain.
The plural may denote mountain clefts or fissures collectively.
- Lane · entry 5242
عُورَان
A well in a state of demolition or ruin.
Here the otherwise plural-looking form is used as a singular description of a ruined well.
- Lane · entry 5244
عَائِر
An eye ailment, especially ophthalmia, irritating fluid, thick matter, or a mote in the eye.
The term may also denote small pustules or matter affecting the eyelid; it is a noun rather than an active participle in this usage.
- Lane · entry 5252
عَائِرَةُ عَيْن
A quantity of wealth so great that it fills, overwhelms, or confounds the sight.
Usually said of abundant camels or comparable property.
- Lane · entry 5252
عَائِر
An arrow or stone whose source or shooter is unknown; by extension, scattered arrows or a scattered swarm of locusts.
The expression emphasizes uncertain origin or scattered movement.
- Lane · entry 5252
أَعْوَر
One-eyed, blind in one eye, or squint-eyed.
Applied to people and animals; the feminine is عَوْرَاءُ.
- Lane · entry 5253
أَعْوَر
A crow.
The designation is explained either through an inauspicious association or ironically through the bird's sharp sight.
- Lane · entry 5253
فَلَاةٌ عَوْرَاءُ
A desert in which there is no water.
A conventional epithet for a waterless desert.
- Lane · entry 5253
طَرِيقٌ أَعْوَرُ
A road in which there is no sign by which to find the way.
A figurative description of a route lacking guidance or visible markers.
- Lane · entry 5253
عَوْرَاءُ القُرِّ
A night, morning, or year in which there is no cold.
A conventional weather-related epithet.
- Lane · entry 5253
أَعْوَر
Bad, corrupt, abominable, or disapproved in a thing, disposition, temperament, or nature.
An extended evaluative use of the adjective.
- Lane · entry 5253
بَدَلٌ أَعْوَر
A bad substitute or an inferior successor replacing someone or something better.
A conventional proverbial expression applied to a disparaged replacement.
- Lane · entry 5253
عَوْرَاء
A foul, abominable, or irrational word, saying, or action.
Applied to speech or conduct that departs from reason, rectitude, or what the hearer accepts.
- Lane · entry 5253
مَعَانٍ عُور
Obscure, subtle, or difficult-to-grasp meanings.
A figurative plural application of the adjective.
- Lane · entry 5253
عَوَرَة
A worse successor following a better one.
A reported interpretation of the noun; the lexical explanation is preserved as an attributed alternative alongside the eye-related interpretation.
- Lane · entry 5243
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic noun has distinct privacy and vulnerability uses: 24:31 and 24:58 concern concealed private matters or times of privacy, while 33:13 describes houses as exposed or undefended.